A Champagne Helper in these Strange Times

Well its been a strange year 2020 has, it was really the year that the world went on hold and we stayed home as much as possible due to a certain virus wreaking havoc across the world and it is certainly taking its toll.

And it certainly has on me personally as save for getting food I’ve been pretty well stuck at home and some days have been better than others, one day I’ll feel pretty good while others make me want to shout out and scream at the world and wishing that things were back to normal again and I can find some of my friends who I have missed so much even though they won’t be for at least another year or two.

But there has been one thing above all else that has been the biggest help to me as I struggle my way through these borked times and its been some Champagne Comedy.

I am of course referring to the Late Show, the ABC comedy series created by the Working Dog team of Rob Sitch, Santo Cilauro, Jane Kennedy and Tom Gleisner plus Tony Martin, Mick Molloy and Jason Stephens who did the first series in 1992 before they were joined by Judith Lucy for the second and final series in 1993.

The two series did terrific news spoofs as well as sketch segments like Shitscared where Rob and Mick try to do movie stunts only for it to go belly up with hilarious results as well as more general comedy sketches.

And all of it (well mainly the 3 Best Bits volumes as well as Bargearse and the Olden Days which have been released on disc) has been the biggest help to me while I’ve been stuck at home as its been bringing not only great laughs but also a big smile to my face and its practically been living in my DVD player ever since I put it on again a few weeks back.

Going back to some of my favorite moments from the Late Show well here is a brief list:

Shitscared: This has been my favorite segment to go back and revisit on the disc sets, Rob and Mick parody action stunts and Rob tries to do some of his own while Mick finds a way to stuff it up only for Rob to get cross with him and for their final segment they find themselves at Warner Brothers Movie World and its great to see not only the Park from back in 1993 but also Rob and Mick with Tom interviewing as he normally did in this segment and I would love to see what they would do with say the MCU today or any recent Tom Cruise film.

Glengarry Glenn Ridge: From the second series, Rob/Tony/Santo and Mick parody the language in Glengarry Glen Ross only for the famous Sale of the Century host Glenn Ridge to come in and steal the show.

Tommy G at the News Desk: Tom takes to a news desk doing a great parody of news bulletins while also doing interviews and doing a pretty good job of it as well, Rob would also come in with some priceless impressions notably Dr John Hewson, Desmond Tutu and Imran Khan being some of his best.

The Dinner Party: One of the best segments from the first series was the guide to hosting the annual Dinner Party and it is a lot of fun to see Tom highlight some of the various characteristics and Rob shows his skill for playing douche bag characters very well here.

Charlie the Wonderdog: This was in the second series and spoofed Australian kids show like Skippy the Bush Kangaroo to great results complete with the late Charles Bud Tingwell playing Gramps.

I could of course go on and name many other great segments but I’ll leave the list there and thinking about all of this makes me wish the 3 Best Bits Volumes (according to Mr Martin copyright issues prevent a full series release) as well as Bargearse and the Olden Days were available to stream on ABC iView as this series hasn’t aged at all, its still just as funny as it ever was and I wish it was there to help others like it has me during everything going on at the moment and the disruption that so many have experienced as a great laugh like this series can really make a difference.